


Escape to the Countryside

by orphan_account



Series: The Telepath's Immortal [8]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternative Universe - Telepathy, Angst, Camping, Cannibalism, Episode: s01e06 Countrycide, Fluff, M/M, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-28 18:43:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10837134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ianto and Jack were finally talking again. (Well, actually, they're doing a lot more than just talking, but no-one talked about that, not even them).It was going pretty damn good, Jack would have said and he hoped that the camping trip that they went on together would solidify the bonds between the entire team, especially himself and Ianto and their newly found relationship.But then the cannibals happened - Toshiko was kidnapped, Ianto went missing too, and Jack was shot.In short, not the best day for Torchwood.





	1. Camping is Fun (and gay)

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaaAAAAAA
> 
> i'm literally so excited to finally be able to write such affection between Ianto and Jack, it's so fun, haha

 Things hadn’t just suddenly changed between Jack and Ianto. Ianto had hoped everything would be sunshine and rainbows after that first kiss (and the others that followed it) but in actuality, half the time he didn’t even feel that he and Jack were in a relationship.

 

 Not that he was complaining though - the other half of the time? Jack was incredibly affectionate, especially if they were alone. They hadn’t yet slept together, in a sexual way or otherwise and Ianto did crave the thought of waking up to Jack’s smiling face (though the lack of sex didn’t much bother him).

 

 They hadn’t gone on any dates after that first one. It had been a good date in Ianto’s books, and Jack seemed to have enjoyed it too, until it was caught short by UNIT ringing about something or other (Ianto had assumed it was about the fairies’ and the case a few days ago, given Jack’s stormy expression when he came back) and Jack ruefully said he had to go.

 

 Despite the awkwardness in their relationship at that point, Jack had still become Ianto’s safe haven. After that first time before the fairies’ happened, Ianto had always been welcome to come in earlier to the Hub and greet Jack’s tired, bleary smile, after he escaped the confines of his bed, with a cup of steaming coffee and sugar-sweet peck on the lips before moving away to work, talking quietly and comfortably with the immortal. 

 

 It interrupted his sleep, of course, so Ianto had only really been utilising his new privilege whenever he had woken up from a nightmare or couldn’t get to sleep in the first place. Ianto could tell from their Link that Jack felt rather disappointed every time he wasn’t there when he woke up, which send a warm tingling to simmer in Ianto’s stomach.

 

 Speaking of their Link...all the build up of feelings when Ianto had closed off their mental linkage had came pouring back out as raw emotion, so powerful that Jack and Ianto wouldn’t have realised it wasn’t their own had Ianto not explained it. Nowadays, the tenderness in their Link was still there, and it sometimes even hurt to feel Jack’s emotions (and his thoughts, very occasionally, considering their memories of the last time they’d spoken telepathically) but Ianto always cherished their Link.

 

 It was Ianto’s busy thoughts that actually woke Jack up. He groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes to try and cover the distant light in the Hub, but even the dimness kept the captain awake. After the initial fond exasperation, Jack bolted up, throwing on a pair of trouser haphazardly, overly excited to see the telepath.

 

 Ianto had been working tirelessly for four days straight dealing with a crisis in the third floor of the Lower Archives - whilst putting away an alien machine she was trying to study, Toshiko had flipped a random switch on the device and figured out the hard way that it stored huge amount of water in a tiny container (‘almost like a camel’, she had joked after Ianto had stopped fuming at her). Ianto had had to rewrite every file that had been soaked, based only on his own memory and the sparse digital files he’d started typing up for the lower Lower Archives. 

 

 To say it had caused stress was an understatement. Jack had barely seen or spoken his telepath for the entire time, but Ianto had promised that it would be only a few more hours (as of yesterday) and he would definitely be finished. A sound of walking - Jack assumed to the coffee machine - determined that it was someone upstairs, but Jack could have told that from the way his Link with Ianto always felt stronger, brighter even, when he was close. 

 

 Checking his hair in the mirror in his bathroom before leaving, Jack clambered up the manhole that lead into his office. The cold air hit Jack’s bare chest when he slid from the coziness of his bedroom. Ianto, forehead pinched slightly in concentration, stood rather than sat by his computer, a mug of dark coffee in hand. 

 

 Slumping against the doorframe of his office, Jack admired the younger man, thinking of how lucky he was. Ianto took a sip of his drink and leant over his desk chair, tapping something on the computer and then rocked back on his heels, humming in consideration at what he was reading. 

 

 “Morning,” Jack said softly, his voice tender and only for Ianto’s ears.

 

 Whirling around, Ianto was startled at the sudden voice. He’d been too engrossed in his work to properly notice Jack had woken up, but when he saw the immortal, he couldn’t help but grin. Jack smiled back.

 

 “You should try and get some more sleep,” Ianto advised, eyes drifting to Jack’s bare chest and the ‘v’ of his hips - Jack noticed and smirked teasingly. There were dark circles under Ianto’s eyes, though, and when Jack brushed his mind against Ianto’s, the telepath was distinctly more exhausted than he was letting on.

 

 “You haven’t even left the Hub,” Jack retorted, but not unkindly. “Have you gotten any sleep?”

 

 Ianto blushed almost guiltily. Gesturing vaguely to the sofa on the opposite side of the Hub, he answered, “Couple of hours. I was almost finished my work, but...well, I didn’t want to leave.”

 

 Grinning genuinely, Jack strolled over to where Ianto was standing, plucking the coffee from his hands and setting it on the desk behind them. He wrapped his arms loosely around Ianto’s waist, smiling softly when the telepath gazed up at him, swinging his arms up to drape of Jack’s wide shoulders. Despite his slightly embarrassed blush, Ianto seemed completely comfortable in his arms. 

 

 “And why didn’t you want to leave?” Jack asked in a teasing tone. 

 

 Glancing down, Ianto caressed the back of Jack’s bare neck with one hand, huffing out a small laugh when Jack shivered at the contact. Without meeting Jack’s stare and instead explaining into his chest, Ianto said, “When you’re nearby, everything just seems clearer in my mind. More focused. And I live too far away to feel it, so I stayed to make sure I didn’t lose it.”   
  


 Jack leant down slightly and pecked Ianto’s lips quickly, a warmth in his heart at Ianto’s words. It was arguably the most affectionate they’d been with each other in the Hub and Ianto seemed nervous about it. Abashed that he’d been so eager, Jack went to pull away, but Ianto whined lowly in his throat, an involuntarily protest that had Jack outright laughing against Ianto’s neck. Curling a hand tighter around Jack’s shoulders, Ianto growled with a faux menace, “Not. A. Word.”

 For a few long, blissful moments, Ianto and Jack locked themselves in each other’s embrace, Ianto’s face pressed against Jack’s bare chest and breathing in the immortal’s addictive scent. “What was it that you were reading?” Jack asked quietly, ruining their reverie. 

 

 Humming for a second, lost in thought as he tried to remember, having been too caught up in their contact, Ianto replied,”Oh! DI Swanson called, she has a case we might be interested in.”

 

 He turned in Jack’s embrace, one arm still wrapped around Jack’s neck because he didn’t want to lose the silky smooth heat of the immortal’s skin. Chuckling, Jack repositioned them, so that Ianto was facing the computer but Jack was still swathing him in his own body, stood behind him with his head coming down to rest of Ianto’s shoulder.

 

 Smiling absently, Ianto glanced quickly at Jack’s arms around his waist, thinking of how perfectly they fit there, before scrolling up the file Kathy Swanson had sent him. They’d liaisoned together a lot when Torchwood worked with the police on any given case. 

 

 “Er...there we are, 17 missing people's reports in the last five months, all in the same 20 mile radius. No pattern in age, sex, race and absolutely no trace of their bodies. Police are stumped.”

 

 Protectively, Jack tightened his grip around Ianto’s waist, frowning slightly. He almost felt like the case had ruined his morning (and, really, it had, but 17 people were either missing or dead, so he wasn’t about to complain) but was somewhat exhilarated; Torchwood was having a dry spell. They’d only had Weevils to chase for two weeks, although Jack was glad he could have more time to focus on his relationship with Ianto rather than on a mission. But, they had to return fully back to reality sometime, rather than in their own cozy little world. There was work to be done.

 

 “Brecon Beacons, that’s where the victims went missing?” he asked Ianto, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Turning to look at him, Ianto noticed it and smirked. 

 

 “It’s rather grassy down there. Hundreds of long rolling hills, no civilisation for miles…” Ianto trailed off, grinning when Jack squeezed his waist in excitement. 

 

 “Up for a camping trip?”

 

* * *

 

 They left it a day before they actually embarked out on their trip; Jack said the reason was to give Ianto time to prepare the tents and for the others to pack a few clothes and other necessities, but it was really because he wanted to ensure Ianto was well rested. He worried, constantly, about the Gifted and his concern was all the more apparent now that they were together (although Jack often questioned whether or not that was what they truly were).

 

 Owen hadn’t been impressed, to say the least, as Jack explained the case. Throughout the entirety of them leaving Cardiff in the SUV, the medic had stayed blessedly silent, but as soon as the fresh air hit his nose and the countryside could be seen stretching on for miles around them, Owen had started his bitching. 

 

 “I ‘ate the countryside,” Owen whined as if he hadn’t already said it at least twenty times. Wishing he had packed earplugs, Jack tried to block out his insistent complaints. A clap of thunder from the rolling grey storm clouds in the background seemed to agree with him. 

 

 “Dirty, it’s unhygienic and,” he paused, turning to look out of the window with a grimace, “what is that smell?”

 

 Jack rolled down the windows a little more to spite him, seeing Ianto smirk out of the corner of his eye when he noticed. It caused flutters in Jack’s stomach and he couldn’t help but to slightly touch Ianto’s mind with his own, a vague imprint of blue oceans and the smell of moss when he did so. Ianto had tried to explain that different minds had different connotations, felt different to different people, but Jack had never exactly understood it. 

 

 “That would be grass,” Gwen deadpanned and Ianto smiled slightly at her remark. It filled Jack’s heart with hope - it was clear that Gwen held massive amounts of disdain for the telepath, but he hoped that this camping trip would serve as a way to bring the entire team closer together. 

 

 “ It’s disgustin’.”

 

 Sighing, Jack tuned out the medic again, resisting the urge to rub at his tired eyes. Ianto always berated him for not keeping his eyes on the road (even if said roads were completely empty). As he thought fondly of Ianto, Jack’s mind turned back to two mornings ago. 

 

 It had been comfortable between them, more comfortable than it had been for quite some time and Jack was almost obsessed with the feeling. Despite them talking with each other more truthfully nowadays (and despite the fact that their minds were Linked), Jack felt that there were still things Ianto wasn’t telling him. About himself. About his telepathy. About what he wanted with Jack.

 

 Surreptitiously, he glanced at the telepath using the rear view mirror. He had a small smile on his face because of something Owen or Tosh must have said, but his eyes were distant, not really focussing on the pair’s conversation. When he noticed Jack’s mind going blank, the immortal invested in trying to notice the smallest of tics that showed Ianto wasn’t as happy as he made out, Ianto gazed at him with an affectionate smile.

 

 ‘Eyes on the road’, he thought at Jack, faux sternly, and the immortal suppressed a chuckle, satisfied for the meantime that Ianto was alright. He just hoped that after this camping trip, Ianto might be a bit more than just alright.

 

* * *

 

 As expected, Owen was not impressed when Jack declared the words ‘camping’. Amusement ran throughout the rest of the team, each barely hiding their laughs, although they weren’t all that keen to be lying on the hard ground that night either. 

 

 “What’s the matter with a hotel?” Owen complained as he and Jack hauled a tent between them from the boot of the SUV, which was parked haphazardly in between two rocky hills. Jack rolled his eyes and they staggered over to where Tosh and Gwen had already set up a tent of their own, working impressively quickly. Ianto was a while off by his own tent (admittedly, Toshiko had helped him with it), hammering in one of the pegs into the ground. There was a clipboard by his side, and he was studying the information about the last victim, Ellie Johnson, only half attentive of the heavy mallet in his hands. 

 

 “People are going missing around here. Do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?”

 

 “Oh, cos sleeping outside’s gonna be a lot safer!” Owen shouted back, the cold air whipping past his face. It was uncomfortable and Owen made sure everyone knew it. 

 

 “No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness,” Jack retorted and dumped the tent down, finally sick of Owen’s whining. Sure, complaining was the basic programming of the medic, but even the most resilient of people would give up on listening to him at some point. He stalked off to unload something else from the car, hearing the tail end of Owen’s cry of, “What am I supposed to do with this?!”

 

 A while later, Jack slumped in the driver’s seat of the SUV with the door open, trailing through the information on the disappearances, Ianto slid up next to him. He had a spot of dirt on his cheek where he’d scratched it and Jack grinned, wiping it away with his thumb. Ianto blushed brightly, glancing over at where Gwen, Tosh and Owen were sitting, before smiling embarrassedly at Jack’s quiet explanation.

 

 “Do you think that the Rift could be taking people out so far from Cardiff?” he asked softly, careful not to alert Gwen of what they were saying. As much as Ianto tried to be civil with her, he knew that if she found any scrap of evidence that either Jack was favouring him with the information, or that he could possibly have played any part in anything even slightly negative, she’d immediately spin it in a way that made Ianto seem as dangerous and untrustworthy as possible.

 

 “It’s a possibility, yeah. But it’s never happened before and as far as I can tell, the people around here haven’t given any reports of Weevil sightings. Plus, surely we’d have someone new in Flat Holm by now - I mean, it’s been five months of disappearances. If it had been a Rift kidnapping, we’d probably have someone back by now, right?”

 

 Jack’s voice was low as he spoke, and his forehead was pinched with worry. His shoulders were tense and Ianto could see a tight tendon in his neck that betrayed his true emotions behind the mask of confidence he had put on for the sake of the team.

 

 “Have you...I don’t know, do you get the idea that something alien has been going on around here? None of us are really sure of your abilities…” Jack mentioned when Ianto didn’t say anything, lost in thought as he was. 

 

 Snapped out of his daydream, Ianto hummed softly. “I promise, I’ll tell you everything after this mission,” he murmured first and then closed his eyes, slipping into a trance-like state to try and survey the elementality of the surroundings. He wasn’t the best at remote-reading as if was sometimes referred to in Demetae, but Ianto could tell a few things about the area that humans could not.

 

 “We have something called remote-reading,” Ianto explained, opening his eyes. “We can see the elementality of the surrounding area, sometimes more. Most Gifteds see it as a stretch of colour, changing depending on the major emotions recently felt in the area. Red for anger, blue for sadness, yellow for happiness, etc. And,” Ianto paused, pointing as discreetly as possible to the hills to their right, where a small village resided a while away. “There’s a massive amount of dark energy over in that direction. Fear, mainly, but that’s only from one source.”

 

 “One source?” Jack questioned, head cocked in confusion. Ianto could tell from the look in his eyes that he was surprised Ianto was trusting him enough to tell him about what he was doing with his Gift, and in so much detail. 

 

 “Like, one person, I suppose. But then, if one person has extremely low or extremely strong mental defences, they could have a different number of sources. It’s sort of like...their most felt emotion at that particular time, expressed as different sources, different points in their journey or in the history of the hills around here.”

 

 Although he was confused, and really any person would be, Jack persisted. Ianto commended his effort. “You said that there were different sources, different emotions other than fear?”   
  


 “Some anger. But there’s something else...it’s like this dark twisted version of happiness,” Ianto murmured, leaning against the other side of the SUV from the open door and gazing down at Jack, who flipped close the information he was reading through. 

 

 “Like someone pleased with something they shouldn’t be doing?” At Ianto’s nod, Jack turned to face him head-on, excited with the new development in the case. “Like the kidnapper might feel?”   
  


 Smiling, Ianto nodded. He was as pleased as Jack that they could be so close to solving this case already. “Could be.” Humming thoughtfully under his breath, Jack stood and stretched, easing out the ache in his stiff limbs. He glanced up at the sky - it was darkening quickly and the storm clouds above them didn’t seem to bode well for an impromptu search of the hills and village in the direction Ianto had mentioned. 

 

 “It’s getting late. We’ll search the surrounding area tomorrow, see if you can pick anything else up. If all goes to plan, we’ll be finished with this case in now time,” Jack decided with a contented smile. Ianto returned it - he was both glad they were so close to finishing to stop the kidnapping in the area and also so that he could return home and relax with Jack. With the new case and the flooding of the Lower Archives, all the work he had been doing, they hadn’t had much time to spend with each other.

 

 Absently, he followed Jack to where the others were loudly conversing, Toshiko looking slightly disappointed - a quick question in the tech’s mind discerned for Ianto that Owen had kissed Gwen and Toshiko was rather jealous over it. She’d gradually become less in love with the medic, knowing that she had no chance with him and finally believing after Ianto’s insistence, that she deserved better. But, she still did like Owen and it hurt that he would kiss someone like Gwen (and even feel proud of it, even!).

 

 “Jack,” Owen said simply and the immortal seemed confused as he flopped down onto one of the uncomfortable camp chairs, Ianto across from him in between Tosh and Owen. “Who was the last person you snogged?” Gwen explained and Jack grinned lasciviously, thinking back on rather long, desperate kisses he’d given Ianto just a few hours ago, knowing there’d be a shortage when they were stuck with the rest of the team.

 

 “Are we including non-human life forms?” he teased, still not sure how explicit Ianto wanted to be that they were in a relationship, but wanting to see if the other man would blush in his pretty little way at the remark anyways. Ianto did, flushing a bright pink and biting his lower lip, refusing to look Jack in the eye as he felt his captain’s elementality become smug and pleased.

 

 “Oh, you haven’t!” Gwen cried, laughing. It was surprising that she was still so shocked whenever Jack was like this - surely she’d gotten used to his never-ceasing flirting as of now? “That’s disgusting!” she added and Jack saw Ianto flinch at the comment. 

 

 “Oh, I don’t know. You’d be surprised at how many gorgeous aliens there are that come to Earth...or already are on Earth,” Jack replied, vaguely enough to not make Ianto uncomfortable, but forward enough to have Gwen shift nervously in her seat. 

 

 “We should get some firewood,” Owen said, and eager for the distraction, Gwen jumped up to help. Jack couldn’t help but smirk - he’d long since gotten used to ignoring Gwen’s xenophobia, but he would never accept it. 

 

 “And what about you, Ianto?” Toshiko teased suddenly, bringing Jack out of his thoughts. The Archivist blushed again, opening his mouth and shutting it again, attempting to stutter out an answer. It would have been adorable had Jack not been hit by a wave of self-doubt. Why was Ianto so uncomfortable with sharing their relationship with Toshiko, his closest of friends?

 

 “Oh, don’t worry, Yan,” Tosh said with a grin, easily dispersing the tension and bringing out a smile in Ianto. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone for a bit, I need to set up my workstation,” she grinned, disappearing into her tent to do just that and allowing Ianto and Jack a few precious moments of privacy.

 

 But Ianto still seemed tense. “Jack, I...I’m sorry,” he stuttered, and Jack knew he was talking about his reluctance to show affection to Jack when the others were around. Shaking his head, Jack stood up and then took the place next to Ianto, leaning into the other man’s space. He didn’t seem uncomfortable with it now and it was the only reassurance that Jack needed.

 

 Slowly, giving Ianto enough time to pull away, Jack leant in and brushed their lips together. It was a long, tender kiss that had Ianto melting, hand moving forward to entwine his and Jack’s fingers. Their touching didn’t move beyond that, but neither of them needed nor wanted it to.

 

 Just as lazily as he had leant in, Jack pulled away slightly, his and Ianto’s foreheads still grazing one another, their lips barely touching as Jack spoke. “I understand. You don’t have to explain; just as long as you don’t hold back on me when we’re alone, okay?” Jack half-joked. Ianto smiled, pressing their lips together lackadaisically once more. “I won’t, I promise.”

 

 When Jack was about to kiss Ianto again, beaming at the response, a loud shout interrupted them. Ianto jolted away and Jack stood quickly, seeing Gwen running towards them. ‘Really, she has the most fantastic of timing, doesn’t she?’ Jack thought to himself, irritated. 

 

 But when Gwen frantically explained to them what she and Owen had found, Jack’s heart nearly stopped in his chest.

  
  


  
  



	2. Pain™ Suffering™ Angst™

 The smell hit Ianto before the wave of dark energy did. It was rancid, with a slightly sweet undertone. Then, as Ianto, Jack and Toshiko neared to where Gwen had pointed out, a spike of darkness, an angry, malicious elemental surge crashed down on Ianto and he groaned, slowing to a halt before they climbed up a rocky outcrop leading into the surrounding woods.

 

 “Ianto?” Jack’s voice pierced through a pounding headache that stench of death was causing Ianto. The telepath hummed slightly, about to open his mouth to speak, but found he couldn’t do much else but whimper softly in pain. 

 

 Two strong arms embraced him and Ianto slumped down into the warmth of Jack’s hold, letting out a shuddery breath. “Ianto? What’s wrong?” Fighting past the pain, Ianto opened his eyes, not having realised he’d even closed them. Toshiko stood a way off, her face concerned but unwilling to intervene, knowing that Jack had it under control. “Tosh, go find the others, I’ll be there soon,” Jack ordered and the technician nodded slightly, eyes still lingering for a second on Ianto’s tense frame.

 

 Swallowing thickly, Ianto glanced up at Jack, finding their Link amongst the screaming terror that the victim in the woods must have been feeling in their last moments. It gave him a second or two of peace and Ianto felt immediately strong enough to explain. 

 

 “The elementality that I was talking about before, all that fear and anger...it’s here too. And it’s stronger, so much stronger,” Ianto whispered and then he lost his tether on the stability of Jack’s mind. Groaning against Jack’s chest and barely feeling the way his captain ran his fingers through his short hair, Ianto tried desperately to choke out, “I-I-I ca-can’t do this...It hurts so m-much, Jack.”

 

 Jack shushed him, pressing a small kiss to the telepath’s forehead. “You don’t have to get any closer, Ianto, don’t worry.” Then, as if having a moment of clarity, he bent his head down so that he could press their foreheads together (they’d found it often made the Link more clear in their minds) and snatched up Ianto’s mind with his own, smoothing over it with loving touches. Ianto’s mind snapped into certainty once more, now that Jack had solidified their Link.

 

 Gasping, Ianto wiped away the tears that had gathered in his eyes and straightened up and away from Jack. “That’s...that was clever of you,” he acknowledged, staggering forwards with every intention to help study the body before a hand stopped him.

 

 “I’m Linked with your mind, Ianto, so don't try to pretend you’re alright,” Jack said, smiling sympathetically. He was right, of course, pain still lingered at the outskirts of Ianto’s mind. “Stay here. Please.”

 

 “If I can’t learn to deal with it now, then I’m not going to be much use when we find the things that did all this-”

 

 Jack interrupted Ianto with a look, turning the telepath to face him properly. “We’ll deal with that when it comes to it. What did you do to help you when you last did remote-reading? Surely you’ve had to deal with some pretty bad things during your time with Torchwood..”

 

 “I’ve never remote-read since the Canary Wharf. It was always too painful anyways,” Ianto said quietly, despising himself when he saw Jack’s worried and confused expression. He always hated not telling the immortal the entire truth, but he didn’t want Jack to worry about him using his Gift, especially if it was helping people.

 

 Glancing behind him to the woods where the rest of the team had disappeared, Jack insisted, “Don’t do it again, not if it’s as painful as you say. And stay here for now, please. Just until we come back, then we can see if we can figure out how to desensitise you to all of this.”

 

 Exhausted with the not-quite-argument already, Ianto agreed with a small nod. At that, Jack careened off with a quick hug goodbye, leaving Ianto alone with agony lurking at the edges of his consciousness. He walked off from the woods, just far enough so that he couldn’t feel the pain except as anything but a small buzzing, and sat heavily on a large, smooth rock. 

 

 Ianto had been waiting for about two minutes when he noticed the pair. They were two men, with short cropped hair and plain, brownish clothing, but Ianto couldn’t see much else from the distance he was at. They were clambering down one of the mountainous hills to the right, where Ianto had sensed all of the dark energy earlier, and heading straight for their camp.

 

 Barely taking the time to think as the pair of men ran to the SUV and forced it open, Ianto pulled out his gun from his shoulder holster and shot it in the air, the loud noise resonating sharply and with a lot more echo than expected. The two men didn’t spook as Ianto had hoped, instead, one of them jumped into the driver’s seat of the SUV and prepared to speed away as soon as his accomplice had clambered in too.

 

 Ianto sprinted forwards, but he knew he couldn’t reach the men before they sped off. Despite the fact he knew his Gift was still tender after the beating it had taken from the dark energy coming off the dead body - a decoy, Ianto assumed, to allow these men to steal the SUV and possibly even wreck their camp - Ianto reached into himself and channelled his magic and all of his remaining energy into a sharp spike of power, aimed directly at the two men.

 

 One of them screamed, dropping to the ground and grabbing at his now mangled wrist. It was funny, the little things that Ianto’s magic could do, the telepath thought absently as he dropped to the ground, unable to support himself any longer. His eyes slid shut, although he tried as hard as possible to keep them open, just as another car revved up, appearing on the top of the hill and the two men staggered up towards it.

 

 Ianto lost consciousness as the car sped away.

 

* * *

 

 “Ianto? Ianto!”

 

 It was Owen’s voice that finally woke Ianto up and he groaned at the harsh sound, twisting to cover his ears the best he could. The ground was hard beneath his body, but Ianto felt too exhausted to get up and distance himself from it.

 

 “He’s waking up...Ianto? Can you move your shoulder just the tiniest bit for me, I want to check your pulse, if that’s okay,” Owen asked, and Ianto grunted, moving his arm down from his ear to give access to both his neck and his wrist. Cold fingers pressed against his throat, expertly locating his jugular and then they moved away, satisfied.

 

 “He’s alright, I think. He’s just used up too much of his energy with whatever the hell that blue spark thing was,” Owen muttered and Ianto opened his eyes suddenly at the words. 

 

 “You saw that?” he whispered, voice raspy and low but still audible. A set of loud footsteps interrupted Owen’s answer and he glanced up, to someone out of Ianto’s line of sight (though he knew from the way his Link with Jack flickered that it was his captain). “We didn’t find anything but some tyre tracks heading right.”

 

 Jack dropped down next to Ianto’s still lying body, smiling gently. “Heya, Sparky,” Jack teased, and Ianto knew that he was talking about his magic, although he was still at a loss as to how the team had seen it. His confusion must have shown on his half-concealed face, because Toshiko, who was standing behind a kneeling Owen, kindly explained it to him.

 

 “We saw it in our minds - through our Link. We weren’t there at the time.”   
  


  “Speaking of...why exactly are you still on the ground? Are you alright?” Jack asked and Ianto could clearly hear the concern in his tone. Shaking his head the best he could with one cheek pressed against the soil, Ianto blindly reached out a hand for Jack’s.

 

 The immortal took it with a smile, surprised that Ianto would be fine with such blatant affection, but assuming it wasn’t his mindset anyways, considering he was sprawled on the ground with a worryingly bare mind.

 

 “It was my magic, that blue light. And it’s rather exhausted my strength,” Ianto explained, wary because he knew Jack probably didn’t believe in magic. But, if Jack had an issue with his explanation, he didn’t show it, only bringing Ianto’s hand to his lips and pressing a small kiss there. Ianto smiled blearily, but the grin fell off his face when Gwen cleared her throat.

 

 “What about that gunshot? And why were the SUV doors open? Did you see whatever’s out here, and why the hell would you let it get away? What-” Gwen’s bombardment of questions halted immediately when she saw the harsh look Jack was giving her.

 

 “Look, I’m just trying to say that we’re losing time here. Maybe we should follow the tyre tracks?” Gwen tried, softer this time.

 

 Trying in vain to gain the energy to sit up, Ianto addressed the entire team. “I saw whoever tried to steal the SUV and who put that dead body there. But...they were human.” An uproar went up, Gwen shouting loudly that it wasn’t possible, Owen asking if he was sure, Toshiko asking if he saw what they looked like or if they had a car.   
  


 “Quiet!” Jack shouted, cutting through the noise and allowing Ianto’s headache a moment to subside. “If they’re human like Ianto knows they are, then this is a matter for the police, not Torchwood. And,” he paused, looking at Gwen who was about to protest, and silencing her with a glare, “Ianto is too weak to go anywhere right about now. We need to take him somewhere that he can recover properly. He needs sleep.”

 

 “But,” Gwen began, complaining despite the furious glare from Jack, “if we’re here now and we can do something, we should. We’re leaving innocent people to die if don’t shut these people, if that’s what they are, down!”   
  


 Jack was about to shoot her down, hand tightening protectively around Ianto’s own, but the telepath’s own words stopped him. “Gwen’s right. We need to stop these people,” he grunted, slowly, with the help of a confused Jack and Owen, pulling himself into a sitting position. Even that had him out of breath.

 

 “Ianto, you’re too weak-”

 

 “No, Jack,” Ianto stopped him, eyes filled with emotion. “If you could feel what those people had before they died...all that fear, all that pain...I can’t let that keep going on, not if I can stop it. They’re human, aren’t they? We can deal with them, easily.”

 

 Jack bit his lip, glancing up at Toshiko and Owen for help, but they seemed reluctantly resolute on the idea now. Sighing, Jack turned to Ianto, gently grabbed him by the waist and arms and hoisted the younger man up so that he was standing.

 Yelping, Ianto twisted out of Jack’s hold only to find he couldn’t properly support himself and sagged back against the immortal’s chest. He glared without any true malice at Jack, who smiled slightly but refused to meet Ianto’s gaze. The telepath could tell Jack wasn’t happy with the decision made, and although he could have used his authority to order the team back to Cardiff, he was trusting Ianto to make the right choice. 

 

 Ianto was overwhelming grateful, but he wasn’t going to change his mind. 

 

 He, with Jack’s help, stumbled over the SUV and clambered into the back middle seat. Jack got in the driver’s seat and then said, “Owen, Toshiko, sit with him. Make sure he’s okay.” It meant Gwen was up in front next to Jack, something she was mightily smug at, but no-one but her and Ianto missed the way Jack adjusted his rear view mirror so that Ianto was in clear sight.

 

 “There’s a village about three and a half miles away, and then nothing else for 30 miles,” Gwen murmured, glancing at the large map they’d brought. She seemed rather pleased that they were deciding to go after the madmen that had obviously caused all these disappearances, which Jack frowned at. This really wasn’t how he wanted this case to have gone, he thought, surreptitiously glancing at Ianto in the mirror, who was slumped, half asleep, between Owen and Tosh.

 

 Sighing, he turned to Gwen, revving the car up. “How far was that village again?” 

 

* * *

 

 The village was horribly small, with four, murky grey, two stories, terraced houses in the middle of nowhere. There were a few other houses dotted off, but not much seemed to be going on. There was only one lonely tractor and the SUV that Jack had parked up, no other cars for miles. Jack doubted that the two men Ianto had described had made their getaway in that.

 

 Ianto was still slightly unsteady on his feet, but the determined expression on his face showed Jack that he definitely wouldn’t back down. “Tosh, Ianto, those houses over there? Check them, see if you can find anything. Gwen, Owen...let’s go see if there’s any room at the inn.”

 

 Ianto hummed thoughtfully at Jack’s retreating back. “What is it?” Toshiko asked as they started walking around to one of the stand-alone houses. She sounded curious, but not concerned - Ianto was glad. “Nothing, it’s just...he keeps learning stuff about my Gift and my abilities, like my magic and the remote-reading, and he isn’t even...I don’t know, upset? I just feel like he’s going to blow up about it sometime.”

 

 Falling into step beside him, Toshiko shook her head. “I think Jack’s put that stage behind him. He understands your reasons for keeping your Gift secret, as long as you’re completely honest with him now.”

 

 Unconvinced, Ianto shook his head, but Toshiko didn’t press any further, only sending a wave of reassurance through their Link. They had reached one of the houses furthest from the pub, silently agreeing that they’d work their way backwards. If Ianto had known what would have happened, he would have insisted they’d stay as close to Jack and the others as possible. 

 

 Three strong waves of nausea washed over Ianto and he staggered slightly, choking. Recovering quickly, he discerned that they must have found another body, and tried to ignore the hints of pain around his temples. “Can you sense anything about this house?” Toshiko asked suddenly, cutting through Ianto’s thoughts.

 

 “Oh, I, er- I haven’t checked yet, give me a second,” Ianto muttered, clasping onto the jagged stone fence separating the two adjoining houses that they’d stumbled upon, simply for balance. He closed his eyes and dipped into his own mind, seeking out the ability to remote-read once more, now that they were closer to the scene of the crimes. Pain flared up in his skull as he grazed against the elementality of the village, the stench of death and pain and suffering clouding his vision.

 

 Gasping, Ianto broke away from his vision, coughing harshly as he struggled to catch his breath. “Oh my God, are you okay?” Tosh asked worriedly, her hands grasping Ianto’s shuddering shoulders to keep him steady. After a few moments, Ianto’s head cleared and he nodded slowly. 

 

 “I can’t sense anything about this particular house. But this is definitely the place that everybody was killed...there’s death all over this village,” Ianto said vaguely, in answer to her previous question. Toshiko furrowed her brow in concern, asking once more if Ianto was truly okay.

 

 Although he was pleased with her care over him, Ianto shook Tosh off, stumbling up to the front door of one of the houses, and attempting to force it open. The door was locked and Ianto was all but ready to kneel down in the dirt and lockpick it, but a sharp scream some distance away stopped him. It was weak and reedy, but Ianto could sense the terror behind it, although he wasn’t completely convinced that it was a human’s cry.

 

 “What was that?” Toshiko asked, her voice small and scared. Ianto put his hand on her shoulder, a steady comfort. It was his turn now to protect Toshiko, not the other way around.

 

 “Just a… a fox or something. Check round the back,” he murmured, beginning to walk around to the other side of the house, staring in the direction that the scream had come from, whilst Toshiko went the other way. 

 

 Ianto moved cautiously around the property, taking in the dirty, minuscule windows that he couldn’t see anything out of and the rough stone walls on either side of him, effectively trapping him in an alleyway. The scream sounded again and Ianto flinched, whirling around to look behind him in fear. It was definitely human, Ianto knew, but if it were a victim, they logically wouldn’t scream only once or twice. Surely Ianto would have been able to sense that sort of pain?

 

 Continuing to the rear again, Ianto felt the urge to draw his gun, but he resisted it, drawing up his magic inside of him instead. Gingerly, the telepath checked around the side of the house before he turned the corner, met with the sight of dozens of dead pheasants and rabbits, hung along the back wall. It cut off his vision to the hills behind, with one rocky outcrop cutting off the hill above them so that the back of the house was at least a metre lower than the ground.

 

 A gun clicked and Ianto whipped around to see Toshiko, her firearm drawn and pointed straight at him. It as a nice gun, shiny black, Compact M1911 that Ianto had chosen especially as Torchwood’s primary firearm. As much as he admired the design, however, Ianto was all too glad when Toshiko lowered it with a nervous smile.

 

 She tried the door on the other side of the house, the lock ringing sharply. Changing her tactics, Toshiko started trying to kick down the door as Ianto clambered up the low wall and surveyed the uneven hills behind them. 

 

 He was about to speak, pointing to a large house to the right of them, before a sharp burst of pain flowered behind his eyelids. Ianto dropped to the ground and involuntarily rolled down the grass, landing in a small ditch between two hills, his ribs protesting loudly at the jolting movement. 

 

 Before he realised what was going on, Ianto was hit by another wave of pain, this time in his stomach, a pattern on bruising burns spreading over the skin there. Trying to suppress his groan, Ianto glanced up, noticing for a moment that his Link with Toshiko was quiet. The background noise of her mind was silent and Ianto was terrified - the only possible explanations were that she was either dead, which send unimaginable fear to race throughout Ianto’s body, or knocked unconscious. 

 

 Climbing up and out of the ditch, but ensuring that he was still hidden from view of anyone in the house, Ianto saw a dark car not too far away slowly pull away, the engine all but silent. Two people sat up in front, whilst another person lay in the back, head lolling weakly to the side but remaining upright. It was Tosh.

 

 Breath caught in his throat, Ianto felt tears prickle at his eyes - he wasn’t strong enough to protect Toshiko and it hurt, it really, really hurt. 

 

 A crashing sound had Ianto frozen for a second; another person, in a dark brown jacket, was leaving the house ahead of Ianto, climbing up the wall and striding up the hill with purpose. If he moved just three or four metres forwards, he would be able to see Ianto, and it didn’t look like he was going to stop walking.

  
 Taking a deep, steadying breath, Ianto did the only thing he could think of; he scrambled up, trying desperately to ignore the man’s angry, startled cry as he passed, and ran the hell away. 


	3. If Only He'd Been Shot a Couple of Inches to the Right (OR: Jack really craves death)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all of your comments and kudos and support are so appreciated, thank you so much!

Jack slammed open the door to another house, having walked throughout it with Gwen behind him already. He moved outside, to the next door along, still checking all the while with his gun for the people that Ianto had described there. 

Gwen still aimed nervously at every slight sound, spinning around with her gun’s safety off. At Jack’s quiet hiss for her to join him, she whirled around, eyes wide, her gun pointed and almost fired straight at Jack. ‘I’ll have to reteach her gun training,’ Jack mused, and that time, he wasn’t so glad about it.

Gathering herself with a relieved smile, Gwen hurried over to where Jack was standing, immediately racing up to the door and trying to open it, whilst Jack stayed by the wall, ready to properly search the house with his gun out in front of him. Luckily for her, the door was locked.

“Alright, move to the side, I’ll try and get it open,” Jack ordered, shouldering her out of the way when she didn’t budge, a stupid, stubborn expression on her face. Jack could tell she felt put upon at being what she felt was babied, but he refused to desist with it, with protecting a member of his team, just because she wanted to be the hero. 

Besides, if there truly was someone or something dangerous behind that door, Jack would just gasp back awake anyways.

Grasping the door handle with his left hand, gun still held out with his right, Jack pulled strongly on the door, forcing the old, weak chain to break and fall to the ground inside with a sharp, ringing sound. Satisfied that there was no response inside the house, Jack cautiously tapped it open with the tip of his gun, recognising the barrel of a shotgun at his face before the world turned upside down.

Fire blossomed at his side and Jack fell backwards, spine awkwardly hitting the ground before the gunshot finished echoing. He gasped loudly, distinctly hearing Owen - where had he even come from? - yelling at someone to drop their gun, assumedly once or twice, but Jack was too out of it to register properly.

Gwen’s worried face swam into his line of sight, cutting off the calming blue of sky above him. Strands of her long hair tickled her face as she frantically tried to get a response out of Jack, and even in his weakened state, Jack wished that it was Ianto above him instead of her.

Groaning, Jack noticed Owen talking to him, and grabbing at his shoulders, willing him to move. With what little strength he had that wasn’t working on keeping pressure on his wound and breathing steady as possible, Jack pushed his legs beneath him and with Owen’s help, struggled into an upright position.

There was a young boy, only about 18 or 19, cowering on the stairs of the house with a long, old shotgun next to him. His eyes were wide with terror as he screeched, “Look, I thought you were them. I thought you’d back for me!”

Despite his injuries and the jarring pain he felt as he paused on the way to the kitchen where Owen was going to examine him, Jack paused, curiosity getting the better of him. “Thought who’d come back for you?”

The boy didn’t answer, instead burying his face in his hands and sobbing. “Who?” Jack demanded, before Owen hurried him off to the kitchen. Really, considering the boy had shot him, Jack thought he deserved an answer.

Gwen had followed them in and Owen nodded to her, then to the kitchen table. She understood, thank God, and cleared the table of the few tin cans, cutlery and a lace decorative mat of sorts. Leaning heavily against Owen, the wound in his stomach screaming in protest as he moved, Jack lay heavily on the smooth surface of wood, worried as it creaked that it would snap under him.

“Gwen, get the gun from the kid. Keep him quiet, would you?” Jack commanded, hissing under his breath as Owen carefully peeled away the material of his shirt and undershirt. The blood had soaked through both of them, mainly because of the deepness of the gunshot wound and the fact Jack had always bled more than what was typical for humans. It had stained the inside of his military coat and Jack groaned at the thought, knowing that Ianto would be worried more over the coat than him. 

Speaking of Ianto...Jack was about to ask where Tosh and Ianto were, acknowledging that they should have been back by now, or at least in sight of the house Jack and the others were in, but Owen gave him a white gauze and ordered him to keep pressure on his wound.

“It’s a buckshot rather than a bullet - you’re certainly very lucky, all the bullets are lodged near enough to the surface…” Owen murmured and glanced up to where Jack was waiting patiently for him to start extracting them. His face was slightly red with exertion as he struggled not to flinch away from Owen’s touch, the pain like a blazing fire, or the coldest of ice against his side. A buckshot did explain the spray pattern of agony he was feeling.

Owen held up a syringe with a smile, attempting to reassure. “I’d tell you about feeling a small prick-”

“But you know you’d be fired immediately,” Jack huffed out a short laugh, but the quivering of his stomach as he chuckled aggravating the holes in his stomach. Another bite of pain flared along the wound for a second, before everything faded to a dull pang thanks to the anaesthetic Owen had injected.

“Okay, let’s get these pellets out, then…” Owen mumbled, mainly to himself. The grip Jack had had on the table leg loosened as he relaxed slightly, tiny snips of irritation shooting through his wound as Owen began to silently work.

“What’s taking Tosh and Ianto so long?” he asked loudly, his previous question coming to light. He felt the need to bolt up and find them, gunshot be damned. Owen must have noticed, because he gave Jack a stern glare.

“Jack, give ‘em a chance. They might have found more houses that expected or something-” he began, trying to reassure them both. Although he wasn’t as in tune with his Link with Ianto, he could feel the telepath’s fear and knew that Jack must feel it too, at a much stronger level.

“Or they could be dead,” the boy across from them cried, and when skewered with a furious glare from Jack, he attempted to rectify his words. “Well, everyone else is!” His voice was high-pitched and rather annoying and although his words had angered Jack, he knew that the youngster was simply terrified for his safety.

“Sit down. Tell us what happened,” Jack said, his tone still authoritative despite having a bullet in his side. The boy slumped to the sofa and sobbed, “It’s not human. Look, my mum won’t know what’s happened…”

He tried to stand up, but Gwen, who was standing next to him, shoved him back down again. Her fear was evident in how rough she was being with him, but Jack was almost grateful. They weren’t finished talking yet. 

“They were expecting me back for the weekend!”

“We’ll get you home, okay?” Gwen said, trying to calm the teenager. He shook his head, face red and spittle coating his bottom lip as he spoke quickly and loudly. It was honestly a surprise he had lasted so long with the racket he was making.

“What are you gonna do? You can’t fight them, they’re too strong! All we can do is barricade the door!”

“No!” Jack shouted, jolting up from his position on the kitchen table to glare at the sandy-haired youth. “Look, kid-”

“Kieran,” he interrupted and Jack gritted his teeth, not in pain - Owen was just about finished with his treatment, he only needed to bandage him up - but in frustration.

“Alright, Kieran,” Jack reiterated, his voice harsh and low and dangerous when he said the other’s name. “My team-mates, my friends are out there. The last place we said we’d be was the pub, so that is where we’re going to go, alright?”

Kieran looked ready to protest again, but Jack angrily stood, coat tails swishing audibly behind him. His gunshot wound was already healing, but Owen, thank God, couldn’t see it behind the bandage he’d taped there. However, Jack was still unsteady on his feet and Owen helped him with Jack’s arm wrapped around his shoulders for support.

Grunting in pain, Jack began to stride, albeit awkwardly to the door, Gwen getting to it before him and letting the sunlight stream in. She marched out and almost walked straight into a frantic Ianto, who had been running down the path to get to the pub. Tosh wasn’t with him, but Jack chose not to think of it for a moment, pleased to see that Ianto had gotten away, and by the look on his face, knew exactly where Toshiko was.

“Jack!” the telepath shouted as soon as their eyes made contact, and Jack stumbled forwards, wrapping Ianto in his arms. Careful not to jostle or touch Jack’s right side, Ianto hugged him back, panting against the skin of his neck. Pulling away slightly, Ianto glanced pointedly down at Jack’s stomach and the blood soaked there. He’d known anyways from the telepathic readings he’d gotten from the immortal that he’d been hurt, but hadn’t realised that it was a gunshot.

“Are you okay?” he asked, taking over from Owen with supporting Jack as they made their way to the pub, not pausing for idle chit-chat. Ianto either hadn’t noticed or was ignoring Kieran, who was trailing next to Gwen, at the head of the group.

Instead of answering with words, Jack just nodded, exhausted, and lazily pressed his forehead against Ianto’s neck, slumping down slightly to reach it. The telepath was jittery with fear and anger and nerves and Jack tried desperately to soothe them as he brushed their minds together. Ianto flinched briefly at the contact before he pressed more forcefully against Jack’s thoughts, blending their minds seamlessly together.

Jack was overwhelmed, breathing deeply against Ianto’s neck as their minds twisted and crashed together. They’d reached the pub and Ianto helped Jack inside, Owen slamming the door shut behind them. Jack collapsed into one of the stools by the bar as Owen and Ianto started to barricade the doors.

“If we barricade ourselves in, what happens to Tosh?” Owen asked, turning to face Ianto with a both pissed and worried glare. He could tell that the telepath knew what had happened.

“They found us. Tosh got hit over the head and was knocked unconscious which made me fall too - energy transfer through our Link - and into a ditch. Whoever took Toshiko just missed me, but I saw them take her in a car up to a big house on the right of the village. Some sort of hall or something,” Ianto explained, which, despite worrying Owen more, satisfied his need for an answer and he continued the move and stack chairs up by the two front doors.

Gwen stood by a chalkboard behind the bar, hands on her hips as she angrily stared on at Ianto. “You just let them take her?!”

Ianto whirled around to look at her, his lips twisted in a snarl. He had tried to keep the peace so far between himself and Gwen, but the fact that she was implying he willingly let Tosh get kidnapped sickened him to the core. Interrupting his retort, Owen asked Gwen what she was writing down, effectively changing the subject. Ianto ambled over to where Jack was sitting, checking with a quick press of fingers against the other’s temple and a dip into his mind (which had Jack sighing in pleasure) that Jack was alright.

“I’m compiling everything that we have so far about these creatures, see if anyone recognises them from their traits.”

Jack glanced up sharply at Gwen’s explanation. Did she not believe every time that Ianto had explained that the things that they were dealing with were human? “Gwen, sit. What you’re doing isn’t helping anything, we already know that these people are just that. People.”

“Our priorities are Tosh and Kieran now,” Ianto explained lowly, digging the information about the teenager from Jack’s mind. “Speaking of Toshiko, I should try to go and find her-” Ianto began, getting up to leave through one of the doors that they’d hastily sealed off. Jack startled at the telepath’s words, grabbing ahold of his muddied jacket as he moved away.

“Wait, what?!”

Eyebrows furrowed, Ianto turned to look in Jack’s direction. A spark went up between their Link, Jack showing him rather intimately how stupid he thought the suggestion was. “It’s the most logical solution, Jack. We know that these people have her and waiting around in a pub all day isn’t going to help her. I know where she is and if I can get in there, I can help her best. I have magic, you three don’t.”

Ianto didn’t bother to keep his voice lowered, even though Kieran was in the room. They’d probably end up giving the boy Retcon anyways, so he wasn't worried. “Well, then we should all go with you. Four are better than one,” Jack insisted, not too keen on the idea of using Ianto as bait, which is what the Gifted seemed to be suggesting.

“Someone needs to stay and look after Kieran. These things have tried to get him before, they’ll try again,” Gwen pointed out, still not referring to the ‘things’ as people. Although he knew that fact was a dig against Ianto’s persistence that they were human, Ianto felt glad of her comment, hoping the support would get Jack to change his mind.

It didn’t seem to work.

“Look, if I go out and they catch me, they’re bound to take me to where they’re holding Toshiko. I can be your man on the inside, I can communicate telepathically with you, tell you what’s happening,” Ianto tried again. Hell, he was suggesting that he be used as bait.

“Absolutely not!” Jack protested. “I can’t have two teammates go missing on me. We need you here.”

 

“Besides,” Owen cut in, walking over to them, “you’re still weak from the, whatsit called, remote-reading that you were doing earlier. You can’t risk going up to where Tosh is being held and not being able to connect with us because you’re too weak.”

Silently thanking Owen with a nod, Jack took the matter as decided, but Ianto persisted, determined to save his Linkmate. “Toshiko is out there, terrified, alone, because of me, Jack. I have to help her, I’m the only person who can get a comms system and weapon past these people, because they’re already hardwired into me.”

Eyebrows quirked in concern, Jack relaxed his hold on Ianto’s arm, pleased when the telepath didn’t yet move away, despite noticing the looser grip. “Ianto…”

Stepping forwards into Jack’s space, Ianto pleaded with his eyes, petrified for the wellbeing of his friend. The sooner this entire thing was over, the happier he’d be. “Jack, please. Trust me,” Ianto begged and Jack broke. It wasn’t the thing he wanted, not at all, but he finally accepted the decision. Ianto was the most logical choice, yes, but it didn’t mean Jack had to like that logical choice.

Bringing Ianto down to his eye level, mindless of their audience, Jack pressed a slow, meaningful kiss to Ianto’s slightly parted lips. The Gifted sighed into his mouth and leant forwards slightly, deepening the kiss. When they parted, Jack’s eyes were shining with frustrated, unshed tears.

“Promise me that you’ll be safe. As safe as possible. Promise me that you’ll come back alive, with Toshiko,” Jack murmured softly, tenderly, begging the other man. Ianto nodded slowly, pouring a reassuring wave of energy through their Link before he left, Owen re-barricading the door after him in a forlorn sort of way. 

They all felt it, not two or three minutes later, when Ianto was knocked unconscious with a sharp blow to the head.


	4. Ianto Is a Badass Bitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter came together really quickly and i honestly couldn't be bothered to check read it at all, so it's probably shit. i hope you enjoy it anyways, haha

 Ianto woke up just as he was being thrown into the holding...cell? It was underground, he noted immediately as he landed heavily where the two men, that had dragged him in, dropped him in. Grunting as soon as the door slammed shut, Ianto curled into himself and checked his shoulder holster absently to check if they had taken his gun; they had.

 

 Despite the darkness in the cell, when Ianto glanced up and scrambled into a sitting position, he could see Toshiko lying a few metres off, sprawled on the dirt floor. Light filtered in lazily from a tiny opening in the wall and as the sun moved its position in the sky, the light began to shine on Toshiko’s face, waking her.

 

 She groaned, struggling up and rubbing at her sore neck. Once she realised where she was, the technician scrambled upright, wobbling on her unsteady feet with a small cry. “Tosh!” Ianto hissed, using a crate beside him to help him up. 

 

 Toshiko whirled around to face him, eyes appearing to widen in the dim light, surprised to see him. “Ianto? They got you too?” she asked, shuffling forwards to quickly hug the telepath. 

 

 “I let them. It was the only way I could get to you, and…” Ianto began and then, thinking back on what he had told Jack before he left, about ‘being the man on the inside’, he pushed up against his Link with the captain in his mind.

 

 Jack didn’t respond. 

 

 “And?”

 

 “I found Jack and the others, they set up base at the pub. I said I should be used as bait and I’d check in with them telepathically, but...I don’t know, Jack seems distracted to say the least. He isn’t responding to my Link-touching,” Ianto murmured, Toshiko seeming both flattered and upset that Ianto had come to find her. It was selfless, overtly kind, and extremely stupid. 

 

 “Oh!” Ianto cried out, bouncing on his heels as Jack’s mind sparked back to life. The immortal was troubled, Ianto could easily tell and he was shutting something out from Ianto, something about where he was or what he was doing, Ianto guessed. As worried as he was for Tosh and as invested as he was into already thinking of their escape plan, Ianto didn’t push it and ask what was wrong, although Jack must have sensed his curiosity.

 

 ‘Ianto?’ Jack thought, and Ianto sent a wave of comfort into the other’s mind, heart clenching at the evident worry in his tone.

 

 “I’m with Toshiko. She’s alright, I think. We’re in a makeshift cell, somewhere pretty deep underground.’

 

 Jack didn’t relax as Ianto reported back to him, and the telepath felt a stir of something akin to concern in his stomach. The entire point of the telepathic check-ins were to stop Jack from worrying, so why would he be so anxious, still? Unless...what had happened to the others? Owen, Gwen, Kieran, too?

 

 ‘Good.’ A pause, before Jack let some of his mental defences down and Ianto could feel his full range of emotions - anxiety, fear, anger, relief. ‘And you? Are you doing alright too?’

 

 ‘I’m fine, Jack. I promise,’ Ianto thought back and was about to ask the same thing to the immortal, worried about him and the others, but Jack interrupted him.

 

 ‘Stay safe,’ he had sent back through their Link, and then abruptly cut off the connection. 

 

 “Was that Jack?” Toshiko asked, having been pacing the room as Ianto was lost in telepathic conversation. He nodded slowly, still caught up on the sudden way Jack had snapped off their connection. His mind was filled with worry, for everyone. 

 

 “Well, I haven’t met a cell yet that I couldn’t get out of, so tell him that he can skip the rescue mission,” Toshiko joked, a lot more confident in her surrounding now that Ianto was with her. She dreaded to think how terrified she would have been on her own and was incredibly grateful that Ianto had come back for her.

 

 The other man chuckled softly, simply watching her as she did her thing, moving around the room with purpose as she studied the door with her torch (she must had hidden it in her sock, Ianto mused) and then strode over to the opening in the wall across from her.

 

 It was a metal grating, old and rusty, but the nuts and bolts holding it to the wall were thick and shiny and new. Toshiko sighed and was about to move away when she noticed the wetness beneath where she’d place her palm for balance. When she pulled it away, it was covered in fresh blood.

 

 Gagging, Toshiko stumbled away, wiping her hand on her jeans with a disgusted noise. Ianto frowned, ambling over to inspect the opening for himself. “That body that we found in the woods…” he murmured, hoping that whoever it was had put up a hell of a fight against these people.

 

 “Try and get that light over there to work,” Toshiko ordered, not having heard his mumbled. Ianto smiled softly despite himself - Tosh was in her element like this, in the middle of the danger. Despite it being him who usually (and willingly) sat behind a desk all day, Ianto couldn’t help but share her mixture of fear and exhilaration.

 

 Jumping up onto one of the crates in the middle of the room, below the dusty, hanging light bulb, Ianto fiddled with it for a second. The fillment had exploded though, probably fused out in between uses judging by the spray pattern of cold copper pieces along the bottom edge of the bulb.

 

 Sighing, Toshiko glanced over at him, desperate to keep the room filled with conversation rather than the steady dripping of dampness from the ceiling. “Well, I’m hungry.”

 

 “You should've had that cheeseburger,” Ianto replied with a nervous grin, settling in slowly into their usual banter. It was so much better to be down there with someone he trusted implicitly, but that also didn’t mean he was enjoying being held in someone’s cellar to be stripped of his flesh and organs. 

 

 “Not that hungry...what’s that?”

 

  “You found something?” Ianto queried, leaping down from the box he had been standing on to slide up next to Toshiko. She was shining her torch down onto the ground in front of her, at a muddied (though what Ianto saw as mud could just as easily been dried, flaking blood) plimsole lying on the damp ground beneath them. 

 

 “Just a shoe,” Toshiko sighed, disappointed. She was hoping it would have been a clue as to what the people who had kidnapped them were planning on doing. “Wait, there’s another.” Toshiko turned her torch slowly upwards, revealing a small cubby hole, filled with haphazardly tossed shoes, stacked and overflowing out of the space.

 

 “How many people have been down here?” she whispered, backing up and into Ianto’s chest. The telepath let his fingers drift soothingly down her arm, upset at the new terror Tosh was feeling. He was about to ask, rhetorically, what had happened to them, but knew it would only spook Toshiko more.

 

 “Fridge…” Tosh murmured, taking in the view of the dirty, white fridge, sitting, without really taking up too much attention, by the cubby hole. Ianto wondered briefly what a fridge was doing down in a cellar when Tosh flung it open.

 

 The light from inside the refrigerator revealed the true horror of what had been going on in Brecon Beacons. There were body parts piled high inside the rows in the fridge, spilling out along the sides, blood dripping slowly from them and forming a murky red pool at the bottom.

 

 There were cannibals. In bloody Wales.

 

 Ianto could have laughed at the sheer unrealism of the situation when he realised suddenly what they were. Toshiko spoke his thoughts aloud.

 

 “That’s why there was nothing left on the body. They need to eat. We’re food.”

 

* * *

 

 There was a new desperate urge to flee after Toshiko and Ianto had found out what they were up against. They passed the time with trying to figure out exactly how that fleeing was going to happen.

 Ianto glanced again at the large, metal door that blocked their path to freedom. “How are you with calculating target stress points?” he asked Toshiko, hoping that the technician’s rambling about engineering or something would calm her jittery nerves. When she didn’t answer, he continued vaguely, watching her fiddle with her fingers. “Find the weakest point, bit of brute force…”

 

 He would have been worried about the ‘brute force’ part of the equation had he not had his magic (and not known the fact that Toshiko was rather feisty when she wanted to be. Ianto had no doubt she could have knocked down a metal door when she was at her angriest). 

 

 “Nice thought,” Toshiko said finally, “but it’s reinforced.”

 

 She tried again to get comfortable on the wooden crates that they were sitting on, leaning her head on Ianto’s shoulder. Rubbing her arm in a semblance of warmth, Ianto looked behind them at the metal grating covering their other escape to freedom. Whoever these cannibals were, they’d certainly put effort into their holding cell.

 

 “The metal grating over there? We have some tools lying around, maybe we could unscrew the bolts on the linkages…” Ianto murmured and Toshiko perked up, jumping up. She was about to race over to the metal grating, switching on her torch to see - the light that had once filtered in through had faded. They must have been stuck down there for at least two hours, for it had been late afternoon when Ianto left the others. 

 

 Speaking of the others - as Toshiko was about to run over to the opening in the wall, Ianto prepared to telepathically link and tell Jack what he had found out about the cannibals. But, they were both interrupted by a loud, harsh squeaking coming from the metal door across from them that they had once been studying.

 

 Whirling around, Toshiko grabbed the nearest metal hook to her, holding it out in front of her as a weapon. Ianto subconsciously positioned himself in front of her, gathering his magic in his palm behind him, careful not to show it to the person forcing open the metal door. 

 

 It was a woman, with short sandy hair, a terrified expression and a large rifle out in front of her. “I’m not going to hurt you,” she whispered, her tone drifting up and down in a pretence of fear. Ianto didn’t buy it for a second - it was clear that she was one of the villagers. One of the cannibals.

 

 “You do have a rifle pointed straight at us,” Toshiko said, and her calmness startled the woman for a moment. Tosh was awfully impressive when she had her wits about her, and even in the toughest of situations, she was always trying to keep her head. It had worked this time, obviously and Ianto was suitably in awe.

 

 The villager backed up towards the door, giving them some space when Toshiko still looked poised to strike. The gun was held up towards the ceiling, her other hand out in front of her, trying to calm the pair. Ianto noticed that she still kept her finger tight on the trigger.

 

 “Were you injured, when they took you? Let me see, I’m a nurse,” the woman asked, and her concerned, gentle voice seemed so very fake to Ianto. Toshiko must have picked up on it too because she didn’t lower the blunt metal hook she had.

 

 “Bullshit,” Ianto retorted, his magic, still safely concealed behind him, snapping in agreement. “You’re cannibals, and we both know it, so how about you tell us exactly what’s going on around here.”

 

 She couldn’t have looked more surprised if she had tried. The villager grinned manically after the shock faded, changing into a completely different person right before Ianto’s eyes; it was terrifying, even though Ianto and Tosh had both faced worse than just humans. 

 

 “It’s the Harvest,” she crowed and Ianto could have rolled his eyes had he not been so scared. He’d hoped he would get a simple enough answer in return, but obviously, this cannibalistic village had a flair for the dramatics.

 

 “Where are you taking us?” Toshiko asked as the woman nudged them up with the tip of her rifle. She was tense and scared but had a fierce expression on her face, more than ready to fight her way out of this imprisonment. 

 

 “You’re going to the slaughterhouse, meat.”

 

* * *

 

 The woman led them roughly up the uneven steps from their makeshift prison and up through cellar doors, into fresh air once more. Despite how musty the air quality was in the cellar, Ianto was too distracted to appreciate the clear night air. 

 

 There was a large house, like some sort of village hall - Ianto had noticed it earlier, when Toshiko had first been taken from him - with eroded stone and brick walls. The manor had seen better days, to say the least, lichen crawling up the sides with no structure or decorative purposes for it at all.

 

 Toshiko stumbled as they walked further along the short path to the door to the side of the house. They both knew that they were walking straight into an abattoir, but Ianto didn’t think of disarming the woman behind them with his magic until it was too late.

 

 The stench hit him like a blow to the face. Fresh meat, and old blood stained the very core of the house and Ianto knew if he dipped into the elementality of the house, it would feel for years afterwards that his mind was covered in crimson blood. 

 

 Plastic sheeting hung from the ceiling after the nondescript living room that the woman behind them was leading them through. Pulling back the dirty sheets of once clear plastic, Ianto and Toshiko were met with the sight of a dead body hanging, wrapped in more plastic, from its feet on the ceiling. Its companions, two of them, hung on the far side of the wall, also wrapped in plastic but much shorter than a normal person. Ianto discerned, judging by the jars around the room filled with organs and blood and the fridge of meat in the cellar that they’d been ‘harvested’ for their meat. 

 

 They hadn’t been handcuffed yet, Ianto realised and was about to make use of that fact when a deep voice behind him startled him. He whirled around to see a grey-haired man, his eyes lit with malicious, twisted pleasure - Ianto recognised him immediately as one of the men that had tried to take him and actually had taken Toshiko that afternoon.

 

 “New meat, have we?”

 

The man smiled wickedly and strode forwards to press a long kiss to his partner’s lips - it made Ianto think absently of all the kisses he’d be giving Jack when he got out of this mess before he noticed the woman’s posture with interest. She had lowered the gun as she kissed the other cannibal back and Ianto glanced at Toshiko once, the technician shaking her head sharply as she realised what he was going to do. 

 

 Ianto ignored her and sprang forwards, getting a brutal fist to the stomach for his troubles. He had known running into it that he wouldn’t be able to catch the cannibal off guard, but he hoped that the man at least thought that he would have no more fight left in him, so he would be caught off guard the next time.

 

 Toshiko cried out angrily as Ianto was roughly cuffed, the telepath dry heaving as the contents of his stomach almost came up because of the force of the man’s punch. She was kicked in the back of the knees to make her temporarily lame and her hands were pulled behind her unkindly and tied with a piece of rope that the cannibal quickly fashioned into a handcuff like shape around her wrists. 

 

 “We know that they are more out there,” the woman mumbled, rifle pointed again at Toshiko. Her partner laughed.

 

 “Not a problem,” he said and Ianto felt a spike of fear shoot through him, the pain worse in his heart know than it had ever been in the new bruises he was forming. What if these cannibals had found Jack and the others? What if they found out that Jack couldn’t die?

 

 “How are they?” the man asked and Ianto was confused for a second before he realised that he was talking about them.

 

 “They’re in good state,” the other cannibal answered. ‘Damn right we are,’ Ianto thought, and Toshiko seemed nonplussed at his attempts at humour. Honestly, Ianto would have been too, in her position, but he was too fearful for his team’s safety to be anything but hysterical at that point.  

 

 “I think they’re the best we’ve ever had,” she added and Ianto was sickened to the core.

 

 “Yeah...Oh, forgot to tell you,” the man replied, leaving Tosh be and disappearing behind the table behind them for a moment. Meanwhile, his partner sidled up to Ianto, grabbing him by the hair and turning his head to look at the young boy, bag over his head, that the man was dragging out. “Caught the boy. Finally!”

 

 He removed the crude sack from the teen’s head and Ianto recognised Kieran’s red, terrified face. “Look, I won’t tell anyone,” he screamed frantically, desperate for his freedom, for his life. “Aww, look,” the woman beside Ianto crooned, pressing their faces together. Ianto shivered in disgust. 

 

 “Who is he?” Toshiko cried, motherly instincts kicking in.

 

 “He’s meat,” the man answered with an evil smirk, pushing Kieran back onto the ground, where the teen began to sob. His partner chuckled, as if it were some inside joke and kissed the back of Ianto’s head, who gritted his teeth against the instinct to headbutt her in the face. 

 

 “I’m afraid, we’re all meat,” the cannibal murmured, touching each of their heads in turn as he passed and walked out of the makeshift slaughterhouse.

 

 “Get ready to run,” Ianto murmured fiercely to Toshiko, who nodded determinedly. They both struggled to stand without their arms to help, but they managed and started defiantly on at the cannibal and he returned to them, a baseball bat swinging forebodingly between his fingers.

 

 “What are you gonna do, put us on meat hooks?” Toshiko demanded, grasping at straws to try and stall for time until Ianto did whatever it was he was going to do. She knew that he couldn’t use his physical magic properly, because he didn’t have the use of his fingers to manipulate the elemental particles in the room, but she hoped that he had some other idea.

 

 The woman laughed hysterically as she walked away, her partner turning to face Toshiko with a smile. “No, not yet.” He stepped forward with a predatory grin as he ran the baseball bat over her fear-shook body. “You see, meat has to be tenderised first.”

 

 Grabbing Tosh by the head and bringing her closer, the man licked his lips. Toshiko glanced at Ianto, waiting for his signal, pleased when the telepath nodded. They were so close to leaving this hell-hole.

 

 The cannibal raised the baseball bat to Ianto’s face, and strode up next to him, looking him up and down with a satisfied grin, checking over the meat. Ianto smiled brightly at him, his eyes filling with twisted pleasure as he snapped his head forwards, hearing the bone in the cannibal’s nose crack.

 

 “Go, get the others!” Ianto cried, and Toshiko ran. She’d made the mistake of thinking that Ianto was going to follow, but he had never planned on it, trying his best to keep the man by his side for as long as possible and giving Toshiko more time to run.

  
 The woman strode over with an angry, wordless cry and as her partner kicked him over, she brought the butt of her shotgun down on his face. The world went black and the last thing Ianto remembered thinking was that he hoped to God Toshiko was okay.


	5. Stuff Finally Works Out (lmao, i mean eventually)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> okay, lil note, i have no idea why the cannibal is called Evan or if they are actually called Evan or something, I was reading through a transcript to get some quotes for the chapter and it kept calling the leader of the cannibals Evan so I just stuck with it? it's kinda creepy too, because my name is Evan but so is this cannibal's and now I want to change my name, haha
> 
> anyways, this fic has finally come to a close, some shit seems unrealistic but i really wanted to add it in, i'm sorry for all the plot holes and stuff. next up will be the rewrite for Greeks Bearing Gifts (I'm pretty hyped for it, tbh)

Ianto had been beaten for helping Toshiko escape.

Badly.

His body underneath his bloodied, muddied clothing was a cocktail of blue, red and purple and every time Ianto twitched involuntarily against the pain already in his system, his bruises were aggravated and another shiver of agony shot through him. After the fourth or fifth hit from the female cannibal, Ianto had stopped feeling them, only half conscious when he noticed other pairs of shoes walking in and out of his vision, some of them giving him a half-hearted kick.

When one of them noticed him looking around the room for some sort of weapon, he dragged Ianto up and roughly pulled a burlap sack over his head, effectively trapping him and blinding him all at once.

Breath hot against the inside of the sack, Ianto drifted in and out of conscious thought. Toshiko’s mind played against his own, but Ianto wasn’t strong enough to telepathically communicate with her yet.

Her second-hand emotions kept shining through, however. It was a cocktail of fear and nervous excitement, the need to sob and the urge to run faster pulsing through Ianto’s body from Toshiko’s mind at first before it faded to pure fear.

Ianto struggled against the metal handcuffs holding his hands behind him and stopping him from doing magic as he felt Toshiko’s terror. He gasped loudly, sobbing against the sack over his head as blood ran down his face.

‘Jack!’ he screamed into his empty mind. There was no response - Ianto hadn’t been strong enough to capture their Link in his mind and utilise it to send his thoughts, his pleas to Jack.

A wave of relief crashed over Toshiko and an image of Owen and Gwen projected onto the inside of Ianto’s skull. He paused in his desperate thrashing for a second, breathing deeply and steadily. Toshiko was safe now. It was three - four, really, if you counted the dumbstruck police officer behind Gwen - against the one cannibal.

But, no.

Ianto felt another wave of petrification, both from Toshiko and himself as the police officer pulled out his gun and aimed it straight at Owen’s face.

The entire village was in on the cannibalisation. There was truly no escape.

‘Ianto?!’ Jack’s voice shot through Ianto’s mind and the telepath desperately grabbed at it, choking on his own breath as he tried to reply. All that his frantic, terrified captain received from him was the image of the village hall, the Big House before someone knocked him out again.

 

* * *

 

It took maybe five minutes for the two cannibals - Huw and Evan, Toshiko had learnt without much glee that they were called - to drag them back to the house, guns pointed at their backs as they walked. Gwen stayed blessedly silent throughout the journey and Toshiko began to work on another strategy for escape, but even she was losing hope.

Gwen was roughly pushed in through the front door, squealing the entire time. She’d hesitated at the door, and now she was being punished for it, the cannibals not taking any chances and being gentle with them.

Tosh and Owen were forced in after her - a congregation had formed in the living room, booze and empty glasses filling the table. They all grinned in the same sort of manic way as the three Torchwood agents turned to stare at them.

“Who are these people?” Toshiko asked although she was sure that she already knew.

“This is our village,” the woman from before answered - Evan’s wife. The people around the table cheered at her words, raising a glass almost in a toast.

“The villagers are dead!” Gwen cried, and Toshiko cringed at her lack of sense. Nothing that she was saying was helping them get out of this situation - in fact, Tosh wasn’t sure if there was a way to get out anymore. At least they’d put up a fight…

“They’ve all been doing it,” she whispered, glancing up at the ceiling as if asking the God she didn’t believe in what the fuck possessed cannibals to do the things that they do?

“This is our Harvest,” Evan said with sadistic glee behind her. Owen cursed under his breath, practically oblivious to the gun shoved in his face and because he knew that nothing he said would make any difference anyways, shouted, “Only in the bloody countryside! You sick fuckers!”

The villagers laughed at them and Toshiko felt herself get hoisted around and thrown into the abattoir once more. As Toshiko dropped to her knees and watched Gwen stumble over Kieran, asking the teen if he was alright, she realised that she couldn’t see Ianto anywhere.

“Where’s Ianto? What have you done with him?” she cried, struggling against the rope tying her hands together. She felt Owen beside her immediately share her concern, shouting for the telepath in the same sort of way. The cannibal snarled at the loud noise and stomped over Kieran and Gwen pulling Ianto up from behind the table.

There was a brown, rough-material, burlap sack over Ianto’s head, and his shirt was covered in flecks of blood from some of the open wounds he had been given. Tosh could see dark bruises peeking out from the collar of his shirt and she felt bile rise in her throat. Ianto had basically sacrificed his life so that she could get away, and now it was all for nothing.

Evan angrily pulled the sack away from Ianto’s face, uncovering a mess of redness spreading across Ianto’s face and staining the cloth tied around his head in a makeshift gag. There was one large abrasion on the top of Ianto’s skull, which had rivulets of red running down it, seeping into other small cuts and blackening bruises along Ianto’s right cheek.

Owen gasped sharply and tried to race to Ianto’s side, but Huw’s strong hand on his shoulder stopped him. The telepath regained consciousness suddenly and moaned, flinching away from Evan’s slaps against his face. When he saw that Tosh and Owen had been captured, his face fell. He had been more worried about them than himself.

“Time to be bled…” Evan whispered with perverse delight, grabbing a meat cleaver from the table. It was shiny, glinting dangerously in the bright light above them. Ianto screamed as best he could against his gag when he saw it, trying desperately to move out of the hazardous path it was taking to his throat. Evan held it almost teasingly by his neck, just touching and drawing blood where his jugular was flowing.

“…like veal. Takes a long time though, but definitely, makes the meat taste better.”

Ianto struggled futilely, grunting as the cleaver pressed deeper into his skin, Owen shouting suddenly whilst the other villagers watched on with rapture.

A sudden rumbling of the earth stopped them in their track. Evan didn’t move the meat cleaver away from Ianto’s throat though and the telepath panted harshly, misting over the shiny edge of the blade. A tractor smashed through the barn doors and screams filled the air as Jack appeared like some sort of avenging angel, knocking down cannibals first with a shotgun and then with his Webley, bodies dropping down like flies around him.

No-one was watching Evan as Jack fought, their gaze fixed on either their enemy or their captain. No-one was there to stop Evan as he made one last move to spite Torchwood before he joined the battle. With a malicious grin, Evan glared down at Ianto and used the meat cleaver to cut through the gag stopping his noises from coming out. Ianto was deathly still as he did so and when Evan brought the blade away, he relaxed minutely, believing it finally to be over.

It wasn’t.

Evan brought the cleaver back down to his throat and slit along the width of it, not quite deep enough to kill immediately. The act of cutting away Ianto’s gag was simply to allow his teammates to hear properly as he choked on his own blood.

Ianto dropped heavily to the ground, just as Jack was finishing off the cannibals. He had his gun to Evan’s chest, glaring down at the man in an unconscious mimic of the way Evan had done to Ianto a few moments ago.

“No, Jack, don’t do it!” Gwen screamed, oblivious to Ianto, who was dying right next to her. “Let me question him. I have to understand.”

Jack swallowed thickly, close to agreeing to with her and lowering his gun. But when Gwen next spoke, a pleading, ‘Don’t tell me you don’t wanna know too?’, Jack noticed a twitching, pale hand sprawled just out of view from behind the table.

It could only be Ianto’s.

“Not particularly,” Jack muttered and blew a hole in Evan’s shoulder, who gave a sharp cry of pain. Ianto had seemed to catch Owen’s attention too, who had glanced behind him as Gwen screeched, ‘no!’, and the medic shouted frantically, quickly shifting over to where Ianto was lying, gurgling quietly on his own blood.

Jack was by their sides in a second, a sob rising in his throat as he saw the state Ianto was in. “Oh my God…”

Owen was in full-blown Doctor mode, not taking any of Jack’s emotional bullshit as he worked on trying desperately to stabilise Ianto. It wasn’t working well, Owen barely able to keep any pressure on Ianto’s wound, seeing as his neck was so slippery with blood.

“Jack, keep his head supported up, I’m going to apply pressure. Tosh, call an ambulance, tell them that his jugular had been cut,” Owen ordered and both Jack and Toshiko snapped to attention. Ianto’s eyes were unseeing as he bucked up, tears filling his eyes as he tried to breathe against the agony.

Owen swallowed past the lump in his throat, but when he spoke, his voice was still laden with emotion. “It’s not working,” he half spoke, half sobbed. Ianto wasn’t responding at all to anything that they were doing; it didn’t matter that an ambulance was on its way, Ianto would be long dead before it got there.

“No! No, it can’t be,” Jack cried out, not anywhere near ready to lose another one of his loved ones, especially not Ianto. Not now that he’d just got him. “What about his Gift? Does he have any healing abilities?”

Ianto breathed loudly, in a harsh sort of way, his crimson blood pooling in the back of the throat as he tried to cough it back up. He moaned, struggling against the handcuffs against his back and Toshiko, who had abandoned her phone, knowing the ambulance would only be in time to save the fucking cannibals of all people, noticed the movement. Her eyes were suddenly alit with ingenuity.

Jack was going to ask her what the hell she was doing as she rummaged around on the blood-covered table, but then Tosh brandished a small key. “Lift him up, he needs his hands-free,” she ordered tensely and repeated the words louder when Owen and Jack didn’t immediately snap into action.

Gurgling as he was propped up, Ianto tensed his arms, groaning as they were released from the confines of the handcuffs. Too weak to support himself, Ianto flopped down into Jack’s lap again and raised a hand.

Despite how weak he really was, Ianto knew that his own natural magic wouldn’t lie back and let him die, so he didn’t pour any of his remaining energy into the task. Blue gathered and twirled around his fingers and Ianto heard the others gasp as it shot into his gaping wound. Pain filled his mind as he jolted up, steadied by Jack’s almost lethal grip on his shoulders.

His slit throat began to slowly knit itself back together, the blood pooled on the floor beneath his head and running in rivulets down his neck seemed to vacuum back up, filling his veins with energy again. After a few strained seconds, Ianto relaxed, his scarred flesh twisting until even the mark disappeared.

Jack raised a hand and hesitantly touched him there, drifting his fingers achingly slowly over Ianto’s skin, scrutinising the flesh for blemishes. The only one that he could find was the nasty looking abrasion on his forehead - and then also, the blood that stained the front of his collar and shirt, too deeply ingrained in the fabric to be released back into Ianto’s veins whilst the other spilt blood had.

“Ianto?” Jack whispered, not quite believing that Ianto was alive, and not lying dead in front of him and Jack was just hallucinating or something. The telepath nodded once, too tired to do much else and Jack needed no more encouragement.

He hurriedly pressed an upside-down, as equally passionate as it was awkward, to Ianto’s lips. Ianto returned it just as eagerly, if a bit exhausted, shivering slightly as Jack began again to run his fingers protectively over Ianto’s throat.

They broke apart as Ianto was running out of air, but Jack didn’t pull away completely, still pressing short, desperate kisses to Ianto’s lips in between his sobs. It wasn’t often that the team saw Jack cry full out, and Ianto shushed him, crooning softly. “It’s alright, I’m okay. We’re all okay.”

Jack nodded to show he understood the words, but his shudders still didn’t stop. Ianto struggled to sit up, despite the Jack, Owen and Toshiko’s protests, and finally leant, gasping, against Jack’s chest. The immortal put his arms around Ianto to steady him.

Slowly and clumsily, Ianto grabbed Jack’s hand and brought their joint ones up to his neck, so Jack could feel the steady hammering of his pulse. It seemed to relax Jack, who smiled hysterically down at Ianto, pressing another sharp kiss to his lips.

Meanwhile, Owen and Toshiko had started stabilising the cannibals that Jack had shot, and having produced zip ties out of God know’s where tying their hands behind their backs until the police arrived. Gwen was standing now, beside Kieran, who had watched with fascinated horror as Ianto came back from the brink of death. The Welshwoman did nothing to help the tech and medic, starring on with rage at the fact she hadn’t been allowed to question the leader.

‘She really needs to understand that she isn’t a police officer anymore,’ Jack thought blearily, hugging Ianto closer for a second and pecking him on the forehead before helping the man to stand. It was slow process, Ianto’s knees weak and wobbling, but they eventually got to a point where Ianto could stand with Jack’s strong support.

By that time, Gwen had coerced Kieran outside where the dawn was almost upon them, out of view of the cannibals tied up and lying in various points of the room, some groaning in pain as every shift they gave jolted their bullet wound. Owen had stabilised them, but refused to give them anything for the pain - both because he didn’t have his med kit with him, and because he wanted in a twisted way to make the cannibals suffer as much as possible.

“You think they’ll tell anyone that I miraculously recovered from a slit throat?” Ianto murmured softly to Jack, chilled by the confused glare that Evan and his partner were giving him. Jack shuddered as he remembered the incident not five minutes ago, and glanced down at Ianto’s blood-soaked front.

“The police would probably ask questions anyways when they see you covered in blood,” Jack pointed out, sickened by the sight of red on Ianto. He was sure he wouldn’t ever be able to see Ianto wear that lovely red shirt of his ever again, no matter how good he looked in it.

“Good point,” Ianto replied, resisting the urge to pick at the fabric, knowing it would only stain his fingers red. “I packed spare clothes for the entire team.”

“Owen, Tosh? Can you make sure these lots behave themselves whilst we’re gone? Ianto needs to change before the police get here,” Jack asked of the pair. Owen had been in the middle of checking Tosh over the best he could with his rather limited (no) equipment, but they both nodded, cocking the guns that they’d stolen back from the cannibals.

Luckily, Gwen had taken the initiative for once and brought the SUV the short distance from the front of the pub up to the hall. Kieran was sitting on a low stone wall outside the house, shivering and fretting and sobbing. Jack reminded himself to give the teenager Retcon as soon as possible - it wouldn’t do such a young, fragile mind well to have to deal with the memories of what had gone on in Beacon Brecons.

She seemed numb to everything as she jumped out of the car, barely sparing Ianto and Jack a glance as she strode over and sat by Kieran. Although he knew that she had gone through a tough time as well, Jack was glad that she hadn’t tried to push the fact that Jack had shot Evan and not allowed her to interrogate him.

Ianto and Jack both staggered over to the boot of the SUV, and as soon as the door clicked open, Ianto collapsed down onto the flat surface. Fortunately for him, the boot was spacious and not much had been put in it for their camping trip from Hell, so Ianto had plenty of room to stretch out.

“You should have told me if you felt that exhausted,” Jack mumbled softly as he rummaged through the duffel bags in the back of the car. “S’blue, two straps,” Ianto said back, in reference to which bag, and Jack smiled slightly. The Archivist was still insufferably organised, even when he was half asleep.

Ianto seemed too tired to be self-conscious as he tore off his bloodied shirt and threw it on the ground, wanting nothing more than to set the thing on fire. Jack drank in the sight of his pale chest - not in a sexual way, of course, but simply to reassure himself once more that Ianto was as scarless and unblemished as the day he was born. He was safe.

The telepath seemed much more comfortable as he stood again, this time with a loose white t-shirt and plain black jacket. But his comfortability didn’t make him any stronger and Ianto cried out, stumbling as his knees gave way underneath him. Jack shouted suddenly and caught the younger man, setting him safely down on the end of the SUV boot.

“Don’t exert yourself, okay? The police will be here soon and then we can put this miserable place behind us,” Jack fretted, bending down so that he was eye-level with Ianto. As if on cue, a police car drove up next to them. Jack wondered how he hadn’t noticed it blearily before he noticed himself how tired he was - which was rather unusual. He wanted nothing more now than to drive Ianto home and collapse onto a nice, warm bed with him, the boundaries in their relationship be damned.

“You’d better go talk to them, Captain,” Ianto mumbled with a fond smile. Jack pecked him quickly and strode off with a mock salute.

It took about two hours until Jack had convinced the army of police cars and ambulances that had arrived that his team were well enough to go home, by which time Ianto had fallen asleep in the front seat of the SUV, followed by Toshiko in the back, Owen resolutely keeping guard over them as they slept (although his own eyes were rather droopy too).

Gwen joined them in the car, silent. She didn’t fall asleep but didn’t talk to Owen either, allowing the tech and the telepath a few blessed moments of rest. Jack slid into the driver’s seat with a smile, overwhelmingly glad to be leaving Beacon Brecons behind them.

They were pulling up by Owen’s apartment, the first that they had passed, by around one in the afternoon. He thanked Jack tiredly for the ride and for the ‘crappy trip’. Then, as an afterthought, he turned to Toshiko (and Ianto, although the Gifted was only half awake) and insisted that he come over to their houses for a full check up the next afternoon, just in case. Jack positively beamed at his concern. The medic left when Toshiko nodded with vigour, striding up to the lobby of his block of flats, grumbling something about the countryside.

It was Gwen’s place next, and the woman left without saying a word. Jack was worried at her lack of response, but he figured that she would open up to them all in time. Everybody dealt with traumatic times in different ways.

“Take care of yourself. Both of you,” Toshiko pressed as Jack rolled up to her house. The captain smiled brightly at her, reassuring her with a gentle nod. Ianto seemed to wake up then, turning blearily in his seat to smile slightly at Toshiko. “You too. Love you…” he said, voice trailing off as he lost the energy to properly form words.

“I love you too, Ianto,” Tosh smiled slightly and bussed Ianto on the forehead, before leaving, more than ready to have a hot shower, get rid of all of the meat in her house and then climb into bed to sleep for the next fucking day.

“Just me left, hmm?” Ianto murmured as Jack pulled up by his house. Jack hummed in agreement and quickly got out, striding over to Ianto’s side to help him walk to his front door. The Gifted was basically asleep in his arms as Jack unhurriedly supported him to the door, fishing his Ianto’s keys out of his pocket - which immediately reminded him of the same thing he’d done that time that Ianto had gotten horrendously drunk.

Ianto practically threw himself onto his bed when they reached there, not bothering to take off even his shoes and jacket. Jack chuckled softly at the sight and gently rolled Ianto over from his front to his back.

“Can I help you with your shoes and jacket, Ianto?” the immortal asked and Ianto grunted in affirmation, complying and lifting his back up slightly to help Jack take him out of his jacket and then his shoes.

The immortal grinned at his...partner? The young man seemed to be already sleeping quite peacefully, sprawled out on his bed, but thankfully, after much coercion, under the soft duvet covers. Jack couldn’t help but think how lucky he was to still have Ianto in his life - to have Ianto at all, in fact. He studied the man for another moment before turning to leave.

“Hnnhmm, Jack?” Ianto groaned, eyes cloudy and unfocused when he glanced up at the retreating immortal. His captain was immediately by his side, worried.

“Where are you goin’?”

“I-” Jack stuttered, not exactly prepared for such an inane question. “I- er...back to the Hub. I have some paperwork to fill out, and I wouldn’t want to intrude any longer-”

Ianto smiled, a small giggle escaping him. He was almost childish when he was so tired, a complete personality flip from his usual uptight persona. “You hate paperwork,” Ianto pointed out, knowing that the real reason Jack was going was because he was unsure whether or not he would be allowed to stay. Ianto cracked an eyelid open and glanced at the other man. “You’re not intruding, Jack.”

Jack didn’t look convinced.

Sighing, Ianto pulled weakly on Jack’s shirt sleeve, trying to get the captain to join him on the bed. He didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night - or some other time, maybe, depending on how long exactly he was going to pass out for - with no-one there beside him and he knew that Jack didn’t want to either.

“I want you to stay. I don’t want to wake up alone. Please?”

Jack didn’t need much more encouragement, gladly pulling off his heavy boots and stripping down to his trousers. He usually would have taken them off, but he didn’t want to make Ianto uncomfortable. Sliding in between the duvet with Ianto and immediately being latched onto like an octopus, Jack could only think how well that they fit together.

They were both asleep in seconds.


End file.
